By Elizabeth Miller
Reference Librarian and Bibliographer

Introduction

Most of you are probably aware of the great number of bibliographic databases available in Brooklyn College's Library. They may reside on CUNY+ (Humanities Index or ABI/Inform). Others are CD-ROM products (ERIC and the MLA Bibliography). Still other databases, such as Chemical Abstracts or Sociological Abstracts) are accessed online, through mediated searching of commercial services.

Many of you, however, may not know of the ever-increasing number of non-bibliographic databases available through the Library. Non-bibliographic databases are usually divided into three types: 1) full text, 2) directories, or 3) numeric data. These are some of the major non-bibliographic databases available either on CD/ROM or online from commercial vendors.

CD-ROM Databases, Including Multimedia

I. FULL TEXT

The Ethnic Newswatch database contains the full text of over 100 ethnic newspapers. These include Irish Voice, Jewish Exponent, La Opinion, New York Amsterdam Trade Databank. As mentioned News, El Nuevo Herald, and the above, DISCLOSURE is a hybrid Philadelphia Tribune.

Some of the full text reference works available on CD-ROM are Grzimek's Encyclopedia qfMammal5, McGraw Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, Quadrupeds of North America by J. Audubon, Multimedia Audubon's Mammals, Oxford English Dictionary, and Microsoft's Encarta Encyclopedia. All of these titles are multimedia.

Literature selections include The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Sherlock Holmes Stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman, A Brief story of Time by Stephen Hawkins, and Bully for Brontosaurus by Stephen Jay Gould. These products are also multimedia.

II. DIRECTORIES

Presently, there are no pure directories available on CD-ROM. The DISCLOSURE file is mixture of directory full-text, and numeric data.

III. NUMERIC DATA

The Library offers 13 government databases which contain numeric data. These include the 1990 Census: Social & Economic Data, the Industrial Census, and the National Trade Databank. As mentioned above, DISCCLOSURE is a hybrid database. It contains reports filed with the SEC publicity-held corporations.

Databases Available Online From Commercial Vendors

I. FULL TEXT

There are over 3,400 titles in full text available online from commercial vendors. These include newspapers, journals and magazines, pamphlets on consumer health concerns, the Bible, U.S. patents, INVESTEXT (a database of financial reports compiled by leading analysts), Every man's Encyclopaedia, Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical technology, and several wire services.

II. DIRECTORIES

American Men and Women of Science, Peterson's College Database, Marquis Who's Who, Standard & Poor's Corporate Descriptions, and the Thomas Register are some of the directories available online.

III. NUMERIC DATA

In addition to most of the Government files mentioned above, many other numeric files such as DMSIFI Contract Awards, EconBase Time Series and Forecasts, and TSCA Chemical Substances Inventory are also available online, through vendors.

Means of Accessing Non-Bibliographic Databases CD-ROM databases are available on the first floor of the Library, near the Reference desk, and on the second floor, near government Publications. There, products can be selected from a menu. Some government document files must be specially mounted; for these, ask in the Government Publications office.

The CD-ROM databases are available every hour the Library is open. (For extended use of CD-ROM databases, you may wish to make an appointment to use a workstation; this can be done at the Reference desk.) Documentation is available for most databases.

Multimedia files can be accessed through special multimedia workstations on the second floor. These CD-ROMs must be individually mounted; ask in the Government Publications office. (The Music Library also collects multimedia products and offers workstations to access them. To request that an online mediated search be run by a librarian on a database available from a commercial vendor, ask for a search request form at the reference desk. You may be present, if you wish, when the librarian performs your search. Alternatively, she or he will mail you the search results. (Many non-bibliographic database searches are costly, and librarians sometimes suggest the use of print resources, if the information is readily available in that format.)

This article should help you to address some of your information needs. For additional help with non-bibliographic databases, contact Professor Elizabeth Miller, x5340.